Direct Observation of Amide Bond Formation in a Plasmonic Nanocavity Triggered by Single Nanoparticle Collisions

Watching chemical bonds form in real time

31 May 2022

The formation of an amide bond at a single-molecule level has been observed in real time by combining two analytic techniques.

The ability to observe bonds forming between two molecules would greatly help chemists discover how chemical reactions occur, but this has been difficult to achieve in practice.

Now, a team led by researchers at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, has observed two molecules joining together to form an amide bond — a bond formation that accounts for roughly a quarter of all reactions in patents for small-molecule drugs.

The researchers attached one of the molecules to a gold nanoparticle and the other to a gold nanoelectrode. They then used electrochemistry measurements and a spectroscopic technique to observe the bond formation at a millisecond resolution, as the nanoparticle collided with the nanoelectrode.

Having demonstrated the power of their technique, the researchers anticipate that it could be used to probe other key chemical reactions.

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References

1. Journal of the American Chemical Society 143, 9781−9790 (2021). doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c02426